Abstract: We argue that labor emigration creates political spillovers and that these spillovers vary with the political regime of migrants' destination countries. Using community and individual-level data from a former Soviet republic, we analyze the relationship between emigration and electoral preferences of those who stay behind. For identification, we exploit the fact the emigration is directed to both more democratic Western Europe and less democratic Russia. Our key finding is that emigration to the West reduces electoral support for the Communist Party at home. Quantitatively, the effects are large enough to explain the fall of the long-ruling Communist government. We attribute our finding to the diffusion of information and norms from abroad.